Current Affairs India - 28 July 2016

1. The Union Cabinet has approved to increase Individual foreign investment cap to 15% in Indian stock exchanges compared to earlier cap of 5%.Currently, foreign investors, in aggregate, can hold up to 49% stake in any stock or commodity exchange. The Union Cabinet also approved a proposal to allow foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to acquire shares through initial allotment in stock exchanges.

2. The Chatterjee Group (TCG) has entered a share purchase agreement with Japanese major Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) in Tokyo to acquire a majority stake in Kolkata-headquartered MCC PTA India (MCPI),for an undisclosed sum. MCPI makes purified terephthalic acid, better known as PTA. MCPI was also the first major Japanese foreign direct investment in India.

3. Eminent litterateur and social activist Mahasweta Devi passed away today afternoon at a private hospital in Kolkata. She was 90. She was awarded with Padma Shri in 1986, Padma Vibhusan in 2006 by Indian government along with lots of literary awards. She won Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1997.

4. Senior IAS officer Aruna Sharma has been appointed as Steel Secretary as part of a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected today by the Central government. A total of 15 new Secretaries have been appointed in various central government ministries. Aruna Sundararajan is now Secretary of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.